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eDIGEST June 2008
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In addition to the print media referenced below, broadcast media coverage includes numerous interviews with DEAN NACHT by KRON TV, KGO TV and KTVU, among others.
ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS
1. “Food crisis could set back children’s health: UNICEF” (Agence France Presse,
2.“
3. “S.F. AIDS funding likely spared budget knife” (San Francisco Chronicle, May 28, 2008); story citing MARK CLOUTIER (MPP/MPH 1993); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/28/BAGV10U6GK.DTL
4. “Bush Administration’s Teapot Dome” (Capital Gains & Games, May 25, 2008); commentary by STAN COLLENDER (MPP 1976); http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/stan-collender/336/bush-administrations-teapot-dome
5. “How Spitzer ‘won’ a $21K Harley Softail” (Orange County Register,
6. “The Sad State of U.S. Broadband; The U.S. has a dismal
showing among nations in terms of broadband availability, with no easy solution
to bridge the gap” (Business Week Online,
7. “California City Files for Bankruptcy” (Los Angeles Times,
8. “S.F. needs a moderate champion of good ideas” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
9. “West End construction bad for business, merchants say” (Marin Independent Journal, May 22, 2008); story citing NANCY MACKLE (MPP 1990); http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_9348723?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com
10. “Thieves now swiping cooking oil used in biodiesel fuels” (San Francisco Chronicle, May 21, 2008); story by GARANCE BURKE; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/21/BAUH10PLBU.DTL
11. “
12. “Settlement plan offers prison alternatives” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
13. “Governor’s
lottery budget plan could shortchange education, state analyst says”
(Sacramento Bee,
14. “No
15. “California State Budget” (Forum, KQED-88.5 FM, May 15, 2008); features commentary by MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980) and JOHN ELLWOOD; Listen to the program
16. “City’s
personnel director resigns” (Philadelphia Inquirer,
17. “Statement by Executive Director Ann M. Veneman Concerning UNICEF Support for China’s Disaster Relief Efforts” (States News Service, May 15, 2008); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).
18. “Boy’s special
medical care imperiled by state budget crunch” (Sacramento Bee,
19. “Norovirus hits 70 at Moscone” (San Francisco Chronicle,
20. “Israel After 60 Years - An
Insight” (The New Times (
21. “SF residents face change of address. Suppose you don’t move and are still forced to change your address” (KGO TV News, May 7 & 11, 2008); story featuring CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003); see video
22. “More focus needed for effective HIV prevention strategies in Africa, says new policy paper” (US Fed News, May 9, 2008); story citing study coauthored by ELLIOT MARSEILLE (MPP 1977/MPH 1995); http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/05/08_HIV.shtml
23. “Next UC president - homey image, hefty mission” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
24. “Getting a (cheaper, earlier) grip on that sheepskin”
(The Berkeleyan,
25. “We saw piles of rotting bodies; Aid workers describe the
horror of
26. “Animal rights group video depicts abuse of chickens at
egg farms” (Associated Press,
27. “Dismal diplomacy” (Manuel L. Quezon III,
28. “Fed rate cuts helped boost food prices, spark shortages”
(MarketWatch,
29. “Fixing what ails City Hall” (Philadelphia Inquirer,
30. “A City That Works - May 13” (Philadelphia Inquirer,
31. “Friends of the Earmark Make Themselves Heard”
(Washington Post,
32. “‘Rebate’ checks yield short-term benefits,
long-term troubles” (Christian Science Monitor,
33. “Se disparan los costos médicos” (La Opinión,
34. “All eyes on media glutton Murdoch - The Democracy Papers”
(Seattle Times,
35. “Broadcasters Scramble to Change the Channel on FCC’s Community Mandates” (Washington
Post,
36. “Inland spill team not flush
with cash ‘We have to triage,’ state official says” (San Diego
Union-Tribune,
37. “
38. “Programa académico ayudará a
enfermeros extranjeros a adaptarse en EE.UU.” (EFE News
Services,
39. “Winemaking in the battle fields” (Off Licence News,
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
1. “The Energy Challenge: Mounting Costs Slow the Push for
Clean Coal” (New York Times,
2. “Obama’s Plan
More Viable Than
3. “A new surge in gas prices” (KGO TV,
4. “Auction off the right to pollute” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR],
5. “A step forward in climate change talks” (Marketplace
[NPR],
6. “Bay area passes carbon tax. First-ever fees cover nine
counties” (Los Angeles Times,
7. “Mom forced to live in car with dogs” (CNN.com,
8. “It’s always the economy, stupid. Recessions
ruined the re-election bids of Carter and Bush. Could a weak economy hurt John
McCain’s chance of keeping the White
House in GOP hands?” (CNN Money,
9. “Clinton Quiet About Own Radical
Ties - Faulting of Obama Called Hypocritical” (Washington Post,
10. “Dan Kammen:
Clean energy and
11. “Campaign 2008 - 101 DAYS - Before the dust can settle on
the Democratic National Convention in - August, the party has to settle on a
candidate and settle its differences” (Denver Post,
12. “BRIC could be a force for sustainability” (Marketplace
[NPR],
13. “Early education is key, speaker
says. Pre-K school advocate says not just poor kids need boost to success”
(Beacon Journal,
14. “Most don’t
know personal data can be sold” (San Francisco Chronicle,
15. “Obama Green Talk Is Gold to
16. “Mortgage help falls short” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR],
17. “Early Start: the case for preschool education” (ABC TV News,
Worlds News
18. “Lean, mean - and green” (San Francisco Chronicle,
19. “SNARK ATTACK” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
20. “Wal-Mart improving its image, an expert finds—Former executive Chuck Denny’s analysis shows the retailer is emerging as one of the most progressive U.S. companies” (Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) - May 10, 2008); story citing ROBERT REICH.
21. “Author: Fund preschools - Standards needed for early
education, he says” (Ann Arbor News,
22. “City Council in Bay Area Declares Bankruptcy” (New York
Times,
23. “The MicroFueler - A Washing Machine That Makes DIY
Ethanol” (Wired,
24. “
25. “Apply Subprime Lessons To
Credit Cards” – Commentary by ROBERT
REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR],
26. “So, who says the worst is over?” (Marketplace, American
Public Media [NPR],
27. “MBA courses: An ethical dilemma for students. Business
schools have embraced corporate social responsibility. But can it last in the
real world?” (The Independent [
28. “New Breed of Business Gurus Rises. Psychologists, CEOs
Climb in Influence, Draw Hits, Big Fees” (Wall Street Journal, Page B1,
29. “This Week on Sierra Club Radio: Robert Reich” (Sierra Club Radio,
30. “Scientists accuse Tories of ‘despicable’
interference. Ideological opposition to a
1. “Food crisis could set back children’s health: UNICEF” (Agence France Presse,
“
The food crisis has “increased the risk of malnutrition and has the potential of reversing important health gains,” she said.
UNICEF, or the United Nations Children’s Fund, released a report saying that four of the world’s poorest nations—Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique—saw mortality rates for children under five fall by 40 percent or more since 1990….
“The report shows that rapid reduction in child mortality is possible through sound strategies, adequate resources, political commitment and broad collaboration,” Veneman said.
However, the report said that sub-Saharan
“We are very concerned, especially about children who are aged two and under, getting adequate nutrition because it is this age that is the formative years for a child,” Veneman said.
“It’s important that children get nutrition so as not to have their learning abilities lessened, or their ability to earn a living later in life,” she added….
2. “
In
the first quarter of this year, house prices have fallen a record 14%,
according to a report released by Standard & Poor yesterday. During today’s housing summit, The National
Governors Association looks at the impact of falling prices and tight credit on
the rise of single-family mortgage foreclosures throughout the country.
Moderator: Diana Olick, CNBC
Foreclosures and Housing Panelists:
- Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), National Governors Association, Chair
- Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA), National Governors Association, Co-Chair
- Mickey Levy, Chief
Economist, Bank of
MICKEY LEVY: I hate to say it, but the rate of homeownership is too high given the level of economic output…. The Frank-Dodd proposal for mortgage relief might actually prolong the agony for many homeowners….
3. “S.F. AIDS funding likely spared budget knife” (San Francisco Chronicle, May 28, 2008); story citing MARK CLOUTIER (MPP/MPH 1993); http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/28/BAGV10U6GK.DTL
--Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Project Open Hand volunteers William Denny (left) and John Hanson gather groceries for distribution to clients. (Chronicle photo by Brant Ward)
As his staff puts the finishing touches on Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget for next year before releasing the tome Monday, one area has already been spared serious cuts: AIDS programs.
Newsom has flatly rejected a proposal by his public health chief to slice $3 million out of the $10 million the department pays to about 30 nonprofits that provide services for AIDS patients….
But it won’t be all good news for HIV/AIDS programs: The 22 percent across-the-board cuts to all community programs, including AIDS nonprofits, that receive public health money will be part of the mayor’s budget. And it’s unclear how much federal AIDS money the city will receive next year….
Still, AIDS nonprofits will fare far better than they’d feared. [Public health chief Dr.
Mitch] Katz’s proposals included
cuts of hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece to programs including Project
Open Hand, which delivers meals;
Advocates say
“In order for people to participate in primary care, they
need these other services,” said Mark
Cloutier, executive director of the
4. “Bush Administration’s
Teapot Dome” (Capital Gains & Games,
--Stan Collender
Discussions about the federal budget like the ones we often engage in here at CG&G, typically focus on “formulation,” that is, on the process and politics of putting the budget together and getting it enacted. That’s the part we all generally agree is broken, not working properly, overly politicized, and...well...you get the picture.
But this story from Friday’s Washington Post, which talks about $15 billion in spending on Iraq that can’t be accounted for properly, or in some cases at all, shows that the other stage of federal budgeting—implementation—is similarly broken, not working properly, and...well...you certainly get this picture as well.
In fact, it appears as if virtually every procedure and law designed to prevent just this type of malfeasance was circumvented….
The Pentagon’s own inspector general confirmed that this lack of concern for procedural safeguards was blatant and commonplace. That makes it hard to come to any conclusion other than that they were ignored rather than expedited or poorly executed.
It’s also hard to
come to any conclusion other than that the spending of taxpayer funds in
Given the magnitude of the spending involved,
My question is whether any one, that is, any individual, will be prosecuted for their actions….
There would have been widespread outrage and anger if this
were a domestic department or agency.
The fact that this was the Pentagon and the spending was related to
activities in
5. “How Spitzer ‘won’ a $21K Harley Softail” (Orange County Register,
--Frank Mickadeit - Register columnist
I think I won some car wax at a hot-rod show once. That’s my lifetime take in raffles. So
imagine my utter jealousy this week when I watched [Todd] Spitzer take title
to a $21,000 hunk of two-wheeled
Back in March, Spitzer said, he was at an American Legion function…. Being towed in on a trailer was a pearlescent-black 2008 Harley-Davidson Softail Deluxe. It’s about twice the bike of his entry-level Sportster.
The bike was being auctioned by Habitat for Humanity to raise
money for veterans’ housing in
The weeks went by and Habitat sold more tickets, leading up to the drawing last Saturday at Oakley headquarters in Foothill Ranch. Spitzer decided to attend, pulling up on his Sportster. Photos exist, and you haven’t seen the real Todd Spitzer until you see him in his American-flag do-rag. You wonder why Brando didn’t think of it.
As Spitzer told it, he went up to the barrel tumbler that held all the tickets and looked in. “It didn’t seem very full to me.” How many had been sold? he asked. The answer: About 1,500. “I figure if I buy another 60, I’ve got maybe a one-in-ten chance.” Again out with credit card, and suddenly there goes another half-percent of the college fund.
As the drawing neared, Spitzer
said, he stood as far away as he could and still be in earshot. Fearing the
allegations that would fly if he won, “I didn’t want to be anywhere near that basket.”
About
6. “The Sad State of U.S. Broadband; The U.S. has a dismal
showing among nations in terms of broadband availability, with no easy solution
to bridge the gap” (Business Week Online,
By Catherine Holahan
No. 6
Although the Internet was started here, the
For the second year running, the
The OECD also found that
Consumer advocacy groups blame what they see as a market with little competition. They say the ability of major telephone and cable operators, such as Verizon…, AT&T…, Time Warner…, and Comcast… to dominate their markets without sharing their lines with rivals has kept out new competition, enabling the companies to keep prices high and investments in faster technologies low. “All of these countries that are outpacing us have much more competitive broadband markets than we do,” says S. Derek Turner, research director at Free Press, a media policy group. “You don’t have the head-to-head competition like you do overseas where they have embraced open-access policies.”
Turner and other consumer advocates are calling for the FCC to spur competition by requiring providers in certain regions to lease their high-speed lines at regulated prices to other providers. Otherwise, Turner says, would-be rivals will never enter the market, as they can’t afford to tear up streets and run their own lines into households already wired long ago by cable and phone companies….
Regulators also hope that recent auctions of new wireless spectrum licenses will introduce new broadband competition over the airwaves. The problem with that argument, as consumer groups see it, is that broadband titans AT&T and Verizon were the auction’s biggest winners…. “We fully expect that AT&T and Verizon will push things complementary to their existing services like mobile TV,” says Turner. “We think there was a big opportunity missed.”
Even if new rivals do emerge from the recent auction or another one being mulled to sell unused “white space” airwaves between TV channels…, wireless Internet access tends to be slower than a wired connection, says Turner. “It will make a difference,” says Turner. “But, in the end, wireless spectrum just can’t compete on a speed basis with fiber optics and hard-wired lines.”…
7. “California City Files for Bankruptcy” (Los Angeles Times,
By Jason Song
Eric Risberg / Associated Press
The
City of Vallejo, Calif., filed for bankruptcy protection Friday after
administrators and leaders were unable to trim the budget to meet a nearly
$17-million shortfall.
The city, a
It appears that
“It’s a
continuation of the story of bust-and-boom cycles in
8. “S.F. needs a moderate champion of good ideas” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
--C.W. Nevius
The issue of Propositions F and G in next month’s election is a perfect example. If Proposition G passes, the groundwork will be laid to turn the huge abandoned Hunters Point Shipyard into 10,000 houses. A public housing project could be rebuilt, and toxic hot spots will be cleaned up. Some 300 acres of parks and open spaces are planned, in addition to the possibility of a new NFL stadium for the 49ers.
If Proposition F passes, the developer has said it couldn’t afford to do the project because half the housing would have to be available to low-income earners. That means no housing, no parks and no 49ers. Nothing.
Naturally, nothing is leading in the polls.
It’s that familiar tale of the city. Vocal progressives like Supervisor Chris Daly, who marshaled the Prop. F forces, often shout the loudest and sway public opinion.
The fact is, Daly is driving the agenda on major issues like this in the city. Give him his due. He’s playing his role perfectly….
But what we don’t have is anyone to hold up the other side of the argument. Who is standing up to Daly? Who is carrying the moderate political banner?…
“There hasn’t been
one for five years,” said
“But who is there that is saying that?” Latterman asked. “A moderate could just as easily play the Chris Daly role. But no one is willing to talk about this in visceral terms.”…
Surely they are here somewhere. Latterman said some thought when Gavin Newsom left the board to become mayor, there was a feeling that he would lead the charge.
“But it was quickly apparent that he had no real interest in building a political machine,” Latterman said. “He didn’t make the rounds, didn’t get down in the trenches. A guy like Willie Brown loved that stuff. Newsom clearly doesn’t enjoy it.”
Instead Newsom seems to have set his sights on bigger prizes, leaving the battles within the city limits to others. Latterman insists that there is a large silent moderate majority in the city, ready to rally behind a leader who speaks to them….
9. “West End construction bad for business, merchants say” (Marin Independent Journal, May 22, 2008); story citing NANCY MACKLE (MPP 1990); http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_9348723?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com
By
Crews work on a beautification project on the 1500 block of
Some say another six months with torn-up streets and sidewalks and noisy construction equipment is too much to take, while others say the result will be worthwhile.
The work is part of a $7.5 million
Audrey Roumiguiere, owner of the BodyWise massage studio and
retail store at
“My retail business is shot,” Roumiguiere said. “I’m sure in the end it’s going to be great but it’s hard enough to be in business.”…
Others say they rely on loyal customers or regulars….
Nancy Mackle, San
Rafael’s economic development director, said the city is doing everything
it can to please merchants. Parking meter fees have been reduced, a public
parking lot at
“We’re making every effort to be physically accessible up and down,” Mackle said.
The San Rafael City Council Monday approved a plan to accelerate work so that it is finished in November. Work initially was set to be finished in May 2009….
10. “Thieves now swiping cooking oil used in biodiesel fuels” (San Francisco Chronicle, May 21, 2008); story by GARANCE BURKE; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/21/BAUH10PLBU.DTL
--Garance Burke, Associated Press
A few years ago, drums of used french fry grease were of interest only to a small network of underground biofuel brewers, who would use the slimy oil to power their souped-up antique Mercedeses.
Now, restaurants from the Bay Area to
“It’s like a war
zone going on right now over grease,” said David Levenson, who owns a
grease-hauling business in
Levenson, who converted the engine in his 1983 Mercedes to run on straight canola oil, has built up contracts to collect the liquid leftovers from 400 restaurants in the last two years.
Last week, when his pump truck arrived at Thee Parkside, a dive bar known for its chili-cheese fries, his driver found someone had already helped himself to its barrel of yellow oil….
In the last three years, the price of soybean oil - the main
feedstock for biodiesel made in the
Those kinds of numbers have encouraged biofuel enthusiasts to
plunder restaurants’ greasy waste
and have even spurred the city of
“Restaurants and staff are no longer looking at this material as trash - they’re looking at is as something that’s about to go into city vehicles,” said Karri Ving, who runs the city’s new waste cooking oil collection program. “Unless you lock down every trash can, thefts are going to happen.”…
11. “
By Susan Milligan; Globe Staff
With just five contests to go, it is mathematically impossible for Clinton to win enough delegates to secure the nomination, or even to pass Obama, who is within 17 of winning the majority of pledged delegates and 111 of clinching the nomination overall, according to the latest Associated Press tally.
But
But while
Obama, too, must be careful not to claim the nomination
before it is officially his, Collender
said, or he may drive angry
“The last thing either one of them wants is to be accused of bringing the ticket down,” Collender said.
12. “Settlement plan offers prison alternatives” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
--Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Treatment programs, community service and county jails could be used as alternatives to state prison, the proposal said….
The proposed settlement calls for a gradual decrease in the
prison population over the next three years, said one of the referees,
Lui said that under the proposal, violent offenders would not be eligible….
Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, who represented state Republican lawmakers in the negotiations with the referees, said he’s pleased that the proposal takes broad early release and parole-reduction options off the table, and at the same time appears to deal more with the systemic problems, such as substance abuse, that keep a large part of the inmate population in the revolving door between incarceration and freedom.
But Spitzer said he isn’t ready to endorse the plan until law enforcement officials have had a chance to weigh in on the details and make sure that public safety would not be compromised. A series of briefings is scheduled to begin today involving prosecutors, police and probation officers….
13. “Governor’s
lottery budget plan could shortchange education, state analyst says”
(Sacramento Bee,
By Judy Lin
Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger used overly optimistic assumptions in his lottery
proposal and could wind up shortchanging education by billions in future years,
the state’s budget analyst said
Monday.
Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said she was skeptical that the state could repay the $15 billion from future lottery revenues and fund education.
Instead, she proposed borrowing against lottery income on a smaller scale, raising $5.6 billion over two years to help close the state’s budget gap.
“We certainly have a concern with the magnitude of the governor’s lottery proposal,” Hill said Monday. “We think, in terms of our counterproposal, it’s much more modest.”…
On Monday, Hill
said the Schwarzenegger administration made “overly optimistic” assumptions
about the potential growth in lottery sales. Instead, she examined changes in
Based on those more conservative growth estimates, Hill warned that public education funding “would fall well short of their current levels—perhaps by $5 billion over the next 12 years combined” because bondholders would have first claim on the money….
The governor’s proposed budget-system changes also undermine the Legislature’s constitutional authority over spending, the analyst said….
Hill was also critical of the governor for continuing to propose 10 percent across-the-board cuts. She offered an alternative budget that uses a combination of program cuts and revenue increases, including reducing the state tax credit for dependents, to hold state services at their current levels.
Given that the state’s budget picture has worsened since January, the analyst said she opted to borrow against lottery proceeds rather than add tax increases or program cuts.
“We think that none of the choices facing the governor and
Legislature are easy,” Hill said.
“All of them involve trade-offs and significant consequences. But we need to
level with the public in
14. “No
--Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Begin scouring gift registries and buying
Twenty minutes after the California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that same-sex marriages are legal in the state, a few dozen couples began showing up at the county clerk’s office in San Francisco’s City Hall hoping to get married then and there….
Karen Hong, director of the
She told them that anyone who was married at City Hall in February 2004 would need to get married again because those licenses, nullified by court order six months later, remain invalid.
That was OK with Andrew Nance, 42, who married Jim Maloney, 47, four years ago and plans do so again over Gay Pride weekend. So which will be their anniversary date?
“Oh my god, we’ll have like four of them,” Nance said. “Our domestic partnership day, the day we first met, our first wedding date. I guess why not celebrate all of them?” …
[New Marriage License Form (PDF)]
15. “California State Budget” (Forum, KQED-88.5 FM, May 15, 2008); features commentary by MIKE GENEST (MPP 1980) and JOHN ELLWOOD; Listen to the program
The governor yesterday revealed his plans for a $144.3 billion state budget. We discuss what the new budget has in store for health care, parks and education funding--and why the governor is taking a gamble on the lottery.
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
* John Ellwood , professor of public policy at the
* Mike Genest,
director of the California Department of Finance
16. “City’s
personnel director resigns” (Philadelphia Inquirer,
By Patrick Kerkstra and Jeff Shields - Inquirer Staff Writers
Acting city Personnel Director Tanya Smith resigned yesterday after she was investigated by the city’s inspector general, mayoral spokesman Doug Oliver said….
The Personnel Department recently has emerged as a major irritant for the Nutter administration.
As recently as yesterday, administration officials expressed frustration with the slow pace of the department’s hiring.
“Our personnel operation and Civil Service system is possibly one of the greatest bottlenecks to making the government work,” Budget Director Stephen Agostini said, in a conversation with the Inquirer Editorial Board that touched on Civil Service matters.
The Philadelphia Prison System, for example, has 183 vacant correctional officer positions. One reason, said Prisons Commissioner Louis Giorla, is the nearly one-year period that Civil Service rules require applicants to wait from test-taking to actual hiring….
17. “Statement by Executive Director Ann M. Veneman Concerning UNICEF Support for China’s Disaster Relief Efforts” (States News Service, May 15, 2008); story citing ANN VENEMAN (MPP 1971).
ANN VENEMAN:
“UNICEF is working closely with the Government and the people of
“UNICEF is responding to a request from the Government of
China for specific life-saving supplies to assist the national relief effort.
Tents, blankets and school kits have already been procured by UNICEF and will
start to arrive in affected areas within the next 48 hours. The procurement of
health, water and sanitation materials is also underway and these supplies will
be dispatched to
“UNICEF stands ready to further assist, as China’s national disaster relief efforts continue.”
18. “Boy’s special
medical care imperiled by state budget crunch” (Sacramento Bee,
By Judy Lin
Derek Longwell waits for his
wheelchair to be brought to him after a CT scan Tuesday. The teen is unable to
walk due to an incomplete spinal column. (Autumn
Cruz/Sacramento Bee)
Derek Longwell’s wheelchair bears all the scars of rough handling by a fully charged 13-year-old boy: scratched metal frame, chipped paint, worn treads and a perpetual coat of dust on the footrest.
The teen … suffers from spina bifida, a birth defect that has left him with an incomplete spinal cord and an inability to walk. But a committed team of doctors and his devoted parents, backed by a specialized state health care program, have enabled Derek to enjoy an active life outdoors.
Now the state’s ominous fiscal forecast is threatening to disrupt Derek’s ability to see his doctors in a timely manner or get leg braces to fit his growing body.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting 10 percent from the California Children’s Services program, which funds part of Derek’s care. It’s a move that parents and advocates say would mean the state’s sickest children will have to wait longer for care….
Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting $118 million from the $1.8 billion state-funded program in the fiscal year starting July 1. Lawmakers already have approved a large chunk of those cuts, namely a 10 percent reimbursement cut for CCS providers for a savings of $97 million a year.
“It’s a tough budget, and the governor wanted to look for a way that spreads cuts as evenly as possible,” said Toby Douglas, deputy director of health care policy at the state Department of Health Care Services, which oversees the program….
19. “Norovirus hits 70 at Moscone” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
About 70 people who fell ill had been at the
The source of the virus has not yet been identified, but generally the norovirus is passed when an infected person spreads microbes either by preparing food or sharing plates or utensils, said Jim Soos, assistant director of policy and planning at the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
Public health officials are working with convention center organizers to make cleaning recommendations and to confirm the cause of the illness, according to a bulletin issued by the health department….
Most people who fall ill with a norovirus will feel bad for 24 to 48 hours, then quickly recover….
20. “Israel After 60 Years - An
Insight” (The New Times (
By Rwembeho Stephen
The United Nations General Assembly proposed dividing
Since the time of the British Mandate, the Jewish community
in
The Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) served as
head of the pre-state government. After the defeat of the
Thereafter, the
The Arabs were opposed to Jewish immigration to
In 1947, UN recommended the partition of
“Ever since King David made
21. “SF residents face change of address. Suppose you don’t move and are still forced to change your address” (KGO TV News, May 7 & 11, 2008); story featuring CARMEN CHU (MPP 2003); see video
By Carolyn Tyler
“You know, I call it the
And for decades, residents in the 1500 block have used the
The post office says that’s the name on property deeds, and so it will stop delivering anything labeled otherwise.
“We updated our database about a year ago and the city said La Playa is the legal address for this particular block in the city, so we put that into the system,” says James Wigdel of the Postal Service.
But residents we talked to say they were never notified.
Donald Aissa only realized something was wrong when he got a call the other day from his insurance company.
“Saying they got my returned mail from this address, the
The post office … recently gave one neighbor a 60 day warning
that the
“Whether it’s talking to the Department of Public Works, the Assessor’s Office, talking to the post office, those are things we’re prepared to do,” says San Francisco Supervisor Carmen Chu.
The post office now says it’s willing to give the 1500 block of the Great Highway/La Playa time to adjust, maybe even up to a year.
[Carmen Chu was
also cited in a San Francisco Chronicle column; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/08/BA7Q10ILOM.DTL&hw=carmen+chu&sn=006&sc=104
]
22. “More focus needed for effective HIV prevention strategies in Africa, says new policy paper” (US Fed News, May 9, 2008); story citing study coauthored by ELLIOT MARSEILLE (MPP 1977/MPH 1995); http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/05/08_HIV.shtml
BERKELEY – According to a new policy analysis led by
researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Harvard School
of Public Health, the most common HIV prevention strategies—condom promotion,
HIV testing, treatment of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vaccine
and microbicide research, and abstinence—are having a limited impact on the
predominantly heterosexual epidemics found in Africa. Furthermore, some of the
assumptions underlying such strategies, such as poverty or war being major
causes of AIDS in
The researchers argue that two interventions currently getting less attention and resources—male circumcision and reducing multiple sexual partnerships—would have a greater impact on the AIDS pandemic and should become the cornerstone of HIV prevention efforts in the parts of Africa with the highest prevalence of HIV.
The paper appears in the May 9 issue of the journal Science….
For example, condom use is widely promoted as an HIV
prevention measure and is effective in countries such as
The evidence is similarly lacking for other popular prevention approaches, according to the authors. Studies have shown no consistent reduction in risk for those testing HIV-negative, and testing programs have produced no evidence of HIV reduction in populations. The treatment of other sexually transmitted infections has had discouraging results; vaccine development trials and microbicide testing have been disappointing; and abstinence is not likely to have a major impact, since most HIV infections occur among people in their 20s or older, when most are already sexually active.
In contrast, many studies in the last two decades have shown that male circumcision significantly reduces the risk of heterosexual HIV infection….
Similarly, partner reduction appears to have played a primary
role in reducing HIV rates in
The other authors of the paper include … Elliot Marseille, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, UC
[Stories on the study were reported 5/09/08 on NPR’s “All Things Considered”, in
AllAfrica.com <a href=“http://allafrica.com/stories/200805091005.html“>
and dozens of sources worldwide, including the <a href=“http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/circumcision-is-the-best-weapon-in-fight-against-aids-824587.html“>Independent
(UK) and <a href=“http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Health/2008/05/09/study_fight_hiv_with_male_circumcision/3567/“>UPI</a>
also issued a story on this topic]
23. “Next UC president - homey image, hefty mission” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
--Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writer
(05-07)
18:57 PDT …When he officially begins his new job on June 16, [Mark] Yudof will
arrive in the midst of a major reorganization of the Office of the President,
including a 10 percent cut across all departments and the relocation of some
operations out to the campuses….
He has yet to sit down with state leaders to discuss the nitty-gritty of the state budget, although he has puffed a cigar with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the governor’s smoking tent as an introduction to state politics. He’s in the “pleasant stage (of) just smiling and meeting people and trying to build a little rapport,” he said, but he recognizes that UC has to sell lawmakers on the merit of its contributions….
A report [by Tim Gage] released in April by the UC faculty Academic Senate says the university has not recovered from the budget cuts earlier in the decade and that the governor’s latest 10 percent cut to its budget will be devastating and force the university to rely more heavily on student fees and privatization of the university.
To make up the difference, tuition and fees would have to be increased from the current $7,500 a year to about $10,000 immediately, and to $18,000 in three years to keep the university from losing its prominence, the report says.
“From a distance, all appears normal; once one goes inside, the damage is clear,” the report says, adding that large classes, overcrowded laboratory spaces, unfilled teaching positions and leaky ceilings are just a few of the many current problems….
As it faces budget cuts, UC officials started a new $700,000 radio and Web advertising campaign last week to inform Californians about contributions that the UC system makes to the state that affect everyone, including health care programs, agricultural and nutrition programs, work in the K-12 schools and research innovations.
“My view is that Californians ought to appreciate how
important the
[Read more about the report and the campaign at: http://www.collegecampaign.org/ ]
24. “Getting a (cheaper, earlier) grip on that sheepskin” (Berkeleyan,
May is the magical time when
This year, for the first time in Berkeley’s 140-year history, diplomas will be sent to all undergrads completing degrees—for free.
The one-year program, estimated to cost between $50,000 and $60,000, is being supported equally by interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry Le Grande and the California Alumni Association (CAA). The two offices put their heads together and came up with the pilot program to address an ongoing problem: About one-third of the students graduating each year never either pick up their diplomas or have them shipped.
“We thought that was a shame,” says Walter Wong, an associate registrar who, along with colleagues Johanna Metzger, Karen Denton, and Regina Mason, is helping put the program together. “The registrar said that students would say, ‘We pay all this money to go here and we have to pay $12 for a diploma?’”
The alumni association felt the same way, especially about the destruction of old diplomas because space ran out to store them, according to Bill Reichle, director of business development for the CAA.
Diplomas are kept for five years in Sproul Hall, then tossed. About 10,000 to 15,000 are on hand at any given time, by Wong’s account.
CAA saw helping get diplomas to graduating seniors as “a nice
thing to do to congratulate students on a job well done and to welcome them to
the world of
Graduating students can expect diplomas to be ready by mid-August this year, a little earlier than usual, Wong says….
25. “We saw piles of rotting bodies; Aid workers describe the
horror of
By Ellen Widdup
Aid workers told today of the scale of the devastation wreaked by the Burmese cyclone.
Andrew Kirkwood, country director in
One team came across thousands of people killed in one township, he said. There were piles of rotting bodies lying on the ground as the water had receded.
Survivors face disease and hunger and aerial pictures show bodies strewn across the rice fields and mountains of rubble washed ashore by the 12ft wave caused by Cyclone Nargis.
Ann Veneman, executive director of UN children’s agency UNICEF, said the scale of the problem was only starting to become apparent and survivors were now faced with the added concerns of poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. Ms Veneman warned that flooding could lead to outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever, while waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery were also a threat.
Time is of the essence, she said. In situations such as these, children are highly vulnerable to disease and hunger and they need immediate help to survive….
The isolationist dictatorship has also been criticised for its slow response to the incident and for its attitude towards foreign aid teams coming to the country to help….
26. “Animal rights group video depicts abuse of chickens at
egg farms” (Associated Press,
--Garance Burke, Associated Press
(05-07)
The
The group’s
executive director planned to submit the grainy images along with a criminal
complaint to the
The estimated 9.4 billion egg-laying hens and birds killed for meat consumption each year have no protections under federal animal welfare law, according to the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture.
“We wanted to show consumers exactly what takes place behind the doors at these facilities when factory owners don’t think the conditions are being filmed,” said director Nathan Runkle, whose group promotes a vegan diet. “The hens are paying the hidden cost of factory-farm production.”…
The video features close-ups of chickens with open, infected sores that are crowded into metal cages holding rotting bird corpses. It also shows a worker stomping on a sick hen as it flaps its wings to avoid being kicked into a manure pit.
Gemperle [which owns the facilities] did not immediately returned calls for comment from the Associated Press on Tuesday. But in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, owner Steve Gemperle questioned whether the footage actually was shot at one of its farms, but said the mistreatment shown in the video violates company policy….
NuCal Foods [which is supplied by Gemperle] referred calls to the Pacific Egg and Poultry Association, whose spokesman Chris Myles issued a statement Tuesday saying egg farmers and ranchers strongly disapproved of the abuses the worker shot on hidden camera.
“Such images and actions are inconsistent, out-of-practice and in violation of our high standards for animal welfare,” the statement said. “Our standards have been specifically developed by leading animal welfare scientists and researchers to promote and maintain humane, ethical and responsible animal care practices.”…
27. “Dismal diplomacy” (Manuel L. Quezon III,
… The blog minority focus points
out 41% of the world’s Jews now live
in that country. And Mitchell Bard
points out one of Israel’s
achievements is that it’s a thriving
democracy: “Israel is far from perfect, and is often condemned for its flaws,
even though it should come as no surprise that it has not solved the social
ills that the much older Western democracies still confront. Israel,
nevertheless, upholds the values Americans take for granted … freedom of
speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion,
tolerance of gays, equality for women and free and open elections … values
absent in the rest of the Middle East. In fact, even as the Palestinians
condemn the policies of
28. “Fed rate cuts helped boost food prices, spark shortages”
(MarketWatch,
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
In short, the integration of world markets means that
subprime mortgage fraud in
Booming demand from
Faced with a perfect storm of falling home prices, rising oil prices, drooping consumer spending and a spiraling credit crunch that threatened to paralyze financial markets, the Fed had to use its most effective weapon: interest rate cuts.
Think of the Fed as firefighters desperately trying to put out a fire they saw as a threat to the economy. In essence, they viewed the commodity-price spike like water damage. It wasn’t welcome, but it wouldn’t prompt them to turn off the hose until the fire was definitely out, economists said….
“Sure, the Fed is concerned about it, but it comes with the
territory,” said Mickey Levy, chief
economist at Bank of
Some members of the central bank’s interest rate policy committee have argued for months that the Fed should stop cutting rates because of rising energy and commodity prices.
However, most haven’t favored an action to fight inflation. A statement released after the Fed’s most recent rate cut said that policymakers expect inflation to moderate in coming months and project a “leveling-out of energy and other commodity prices.”
To some, that suggests the Fed has signaled that more rate changes won’t come any time soon, Levy said. But he added that the Fed may not be able to pause if the economy weakens further….
29. “Fixing what ails City Hall” (Philadelphia Inquirer,
By Chris Satullo, Inquirer Columnist
Those two phrases aren’t typically paired in a sentence—unless it’s said with a sarcastic laugh….
During his campaign, Mayor Nutter promised to change all that. His new team, led in this effort by Managing Director Camille Barnett, wants to instill a new culture of bold goals, clear measures, and accountability for effective services.
They have set six core goals for the city. They are working to set up the PhillyStat system for measuring progress toward those goals on a regular basis. By year’s end, they want to set up a 311 hotline number to give citizens “one-stop shopping” for city services, ending those voyages deep into City Hall voice-mail hell.
The Nutter team wants to interweave PhillyStat with its budget process, so departments that deliver the goods get rewarded, while departments that bumble don’t get a pass.
Now, through the Great Expectations project, citizens and customers of the city will have a chance to help root this ambitious effort firmly in the realities of day-to-day city life….
Top Nutter administration officials, including … city budget director Steve Agostini, will be present to explain their core goals and how they feed into PhillyStat….
Agostini says the citizen input will be used to set up PhillyStat and in the drafting of future budgets.
“Oh, yeah, yield from these forums will be shared widely among departments,” he said. “We do have a sense of what is important to measure and to deliver. But we know we don’t know everything. We need a way to hear from citizens what they think is important for us to be doing.”
Agostini said he
learned to value citizen input highly in previous jobs in places such as
“What I like is civic input where people get a chance to do more than vent,” he said. “I like to tell people, ‘Here are the challenges we face. Help us think through how to solve them.’ “
Those words could stand as the Great Expectations credo, which may be why Agostini so readily agreed to take part in these forums….
30. “A City That Works - May 13” (Philadelphia Inquirer,
Citizen blogger Bill Rowland takes a look at
…
I’ve been to several Great
Expectations events, and I’ve always
walked away energized by the collaboration and teamwork by seemingly diverse
people. Tuesday night in
The evening began with dinner followed by a few obligatory
remarks by Tom Ferrick Jr., who summarized the evening’s agenda and quickly made it clear that establishing Customer
Service Standards for
31. “Friends of the Earmark Make Themselves Heard”
(Washington Post,
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
The hottest document on Capitol Hill is an anonymous six-page white paper that defends, of all things, earmarks—those much-maligned home-state projects that lawmakers shoehorn into spending bills.
A growing number of politicians have decided to just say no
to earmarks. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee,
has vowed to veto any legislation that contains “pork-barrel spending.” And
several Democrats, including Rep. Henry Waxman (
The trend worries many lobbyists (and some lawmakers), and they are beginning to fight back—in other words, to lobby. Although a publicist initially told the Washington Post otherwise, the Ferguson Group acknowledges that it helped persuade three mayors whose cities it represents to praise earmarks in a Post op-ed Saturday.
But the widely read white paper—”The Fairness of Congressional Earmarking in American Democracy”—is the biggest counterattack so far….
Congress rejected a moratorium on earmarks earlier this year, and no one expects them to disappear. “One of the big reasons lawmakers are elected to Congress is to bring things home to their states and districts,” said budget expert Stan Collender….
32. “‘Rebate’ checks yield short-term benefits,
long-term troubles” (Christian Science Monitor,
By David R. Francis
Today, Uncle Sam begins to deposit money directly into the checking accounts of some 130 million American households. Probably $600 for a single person, maybe $1,200 for a family….
Budget expert Stan
Collender doesn’t even like the
“tax rebate” terminology used by
For lawmakers, passage of the stimulus package in February
offered Democrats and Republicans alike the merits of showing voters they are
taking action on the economy. For the White House and Congress, it was the
equivalent of the Monopoly “Get Out of Jail Free”
card, maintains Mr. Collender, managing
director of Qorvis Communications in
[Stan Collender was also cited in the Washington Post’s White House Watch blog to this topic.]
33. “Se disparan los costos médicos” (La Opinión,
By Yurina Rico
Los habitantes en Estados Unidos pagan cada vez más de su bolsillo los costos médicos en los que incurren anualmente, de acuerdo con un nuevo reporte en el que se revela que en 10 años ha incrementado de 544 a 856 dólares la cantidad de dinero que los estadounidenses tienen que desembolsar.
“Este reporte confirma una tendencia que se
ha venido registrando y es que las personas pagan más por el cuidado médico.
Los dos rubros más grandes son servicios de hospital y servicios médicos”, dijo
Marian Mulkey, portavoz de
En general, los costos médicos anuales han subido de 3,938 a 7,868 dólares.
“El costo
El costo de las medicinas también afecta directamente al paciente, ya que uno de cada cinco dólares que gastan de sus bolsillos es utilizado en medicamentos.
“No hay duda de que las personas están gastando cada vez más de su propio dinero en medicamentos y servicios médicos. La pregunta aquí es ¿qué se puede hacer para evitar que los costos sigan subiendo?”, subrayó Mulkey.
La portavoz de la organización California HealthCare Foundation considera que el costo general de los servicios de salud continuarán incrementándose.
“Si una persona necesita volar, buscará la aerolínea que le ofrezca un mejor precio. Esta lógica no funciona con servicios de salud porque las personas no tienen tiempo para comparar proveedores y encontrar la mejor oferta. Cuando necesitan cuidado médico, lo consiguen a cualquier precio y sin buscar mucho entre los proveedores”, acotó Mulkey….
34. “All eyes on media glutton Murdoch - The Democracy
Papers” (Seattle Times,
By Ryan Blethen:
Rupert Murdoch, the compulsive buyer of all things media, has a handshake deal with Tribune Co. to buy Newsday for a reported $580 million.
The potential purchase of the nation’s 10th-largest newspaper, located on
… What makes this deal so unsavory is that it puts an enormous amount of power under the control of arguably the nation’s, if not the world’s, most powerful media company. Newsday’s sale to News Corporation not only cripples an important media market, it will further squeeze the American press into the grip of far too few corporations — corporations with a hunger for profits, not journalism….
S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, a national organization that promotes diverse and independent media, expects the public to be disgusted with the sale.
“Given Murdoch’s
current ownership of media in the
I hope Turner is right. At some point, News Corporation’s ever-growing appetite will trigger a backlash. Newsday might be just the acquisition to do so.
35. “Broadcasters Scramble to Change the Channel on FCC’s Community Mandates” (Washington
Post,
By Cindy Skrzycki
As
Under proposals published Feb. 13, the Federal Communications Commission would require television and radio station owners to reconnect with their markets at a time when technology allows remote broadcasting and shared programming. The industry doesn’t like the idea….
Public-interest groups say modern radio broadcasters owned by big media companies have sacrificed local radio voices for homogenized playlists, local TV political coverage for sensational news of celebrities and a presence in the community with a distant headquarters and marketing agreements.
They are also unhappy with the lack of minority and female ownership….
“Broadcasters are given these licenses for free,” said S. Derek Turner, research director for Free
Press, a nonprofit group in
36. “Inland spill team not flush
with cash ‘We have to triage,’ state official says” (San Diego
Union-Tribune,
By Michael Gardner, Copley News Service.
Every time an offshore oil spill threatens
But when the state’s rivers and streams are in jeopardy from a pipeline rupture, overturned tanker truck or train derailment, the response rarely matches the outpouring of attention given to beaches and seabirds caked in oil.
For example, in the first nine months of 2007 the inland program received 1,391 spill reports. State officials physically responded to 160 reports—an 11 percent rate….
In contrast, the offshore oil spill unit responded to all but 30 of its 764 calls. None of the 30 non-responses was attributed by the marine unit to a “lack of resources.”…
Environmentalists say the inland program has been shorted for too long, exposing drinking water, fish and wildlife to harmful toxins.
“The state simply isn’t
responding to spills in any meaningful way,” said Linda Sheehan, executive director of
37. “
loveLife last month launched a new phase of its campaign to reduce HIV among young people. Using the tagline “Make YOUR Move” the new approach recognises that most young South Africans know about HIV/Aids and how to avoid getting it, but further progress in reducing the prevalence among young people is constrained by their perception of limited opportunity.
The shift in focus comes at a time when HIV rates among young people seem to have turned the corner and have started to come down. At the same time, the sharp rise in HIV infection among 18-21 year olds continues to drive the epidemic, with one in four young women in South Africa HIV positive by her 21st birthday….
Says loveLife CEO Dr David Harrison, “Young people have got the message about HIV/Aids. What’s impeding further progress is not their response to the message, but response to their circumstances. Young people whose life choices are constrained and who constantly feel isolated are at much higher risk for HIV infection. ‘Make YOUR Move’ aims to help them make decisions that will enhance their prospects day-by-day and help protect their future”….
Over the next year loveLife will integrate this new approach across all its platforms, including in-class programmes in 3800 schools; the annual loveLife Games involving half a million participants in events across the country; and in partnership with loveLife’s 130 community-based organisations….
38. “Programa académico ayudará a
enfermeros extranjeros a adaptarse en EE.UU.” (EFE News
Services,
--Luis Uribe
Los Ángeles, 10 mar (EFE).- Un programa de la Universidad de California (UC) Irvine ayudará a enfermeros extranjeros a adaptarse a la cultura en EEUU, las dificultades con el idioma y las prácticas laborales, ante el déficit nacional de estos profesionales.
“Muchos enfermeros capacitados en el extranjero, aunque hayan aprobado el examen requerido para trabajar en EE.UU., muchas veces no comprenden la cultura de los hospitales estadounidenses, lo que les trae problemas de comunicación con otro personal médico y con los mismos pacientes”, dijo hoy a Efe el doctor Jesús Oliva, de Soluciones de Salud COPE, una entidad no lucrativa que colaboró en el diseño del programa….
Un reporte elaborado en el 2007 [by Hayley Buchbinder] por el Instituto de Política Tomás Rivera (TRPI, en inglés) señaló que, tanto en California como en el resto del país, existe un gran vacío entre la necesidad de enfermeros y la participación de minorías especialmente de latinos.
Según la investigación, mientras la población hispana
“La fuerza de trabajo actual en enfermería, están
envejeciendo y se está retirando, y no hay suficiente gente joven cubriendo
esos vacíos”, explicó en su momento la
autora
39. “Winemaking in the battle fields” (Off Licence News,
… In
In such a climate, tending vineyards and producing wine is an act of courage and of optimism….
1. “The Energy Challenge: Mounting Costs Slow
the Push for Clean Coal” (New York Times,
By Matthew L. Wald
Artist’s rendering of the proposed FutureGen plant. (FutureGen
President Bush is for it, and indeed has spent years talking up the virtues of “clean coal.” All three candidates to succeed him favor the approach. So do many other members of Congress. Coal companies are for it. Many environmentalists favor it. Utility executives are practically begging for the technology.
But it has become clear in recent months that the nation’s effort to develop the technique is lagging badly.
In January, the
government canceled its support for what was supposed to be a showcase project,
a plant at a carefully chosen site in
Perhaps worse, in the
last few months, utility projects in
“It’s a total mess,” said Daniel
M. Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the
2. “Obama’s Plan More Viable Than
By Halsted R. Holman and Diana Dutton
Many people think Hillary Clinton has a better health plan than Barack Obama. She repeatedly tells voters her plan will cover everybody, while Obama’s will leave out 15 million people. Newly emerging data tell a different story.
Since 2006,
In short, mandating universal coverage is easy; paying for it is not. The cost of expanding private insurance coverage with government subsidies is likely to swamp the federal budget….
Both [Clinton and Obama] would create a government-regulated insurance “market,” requiring insurers to cover everyone at the same price regardless of their health, and offering a Medicare-type public program with comprehensive benefits open to all…. Whether such reforms would actually control costs remains to be seen. They will surely meet resistance from health care industry groups that benefit directly from continued price escalation and market expansion.
Anticipating such
resistance, Obama has proposed a plan that is intended to move toward universal
coverage without putting an unfair burden on individuals in the process. Will
his plan leave 15 million people uninsured, as
3. “A new surge in gas
prices” (KGO TV,
By Heather Ishimaru
The price of crude oil came down on Thursday, by $4.41 a barrel, to $126.62, as news of a federal investigation into “price manipulation” broke….
Up, up and away go gas prices. And yet the price of a barrel of oil came down $4? So what is the relationship between the price of oil and the price at the pump?
UC Berkeley Energy Expert Dan Kammen says there is a relationship, but it’s not a direct one.
“The gas prices you see today reflect something that happened a little bit in the past. They reflect what was the price when that barrel was bought and then refined at the local refinery,” said Kammen.
But don’t expect Thursday’s drop in oil to make a difference down the line.
“A 20-cent increase overnight is due to the gas stations and their supplier, when independent or part of a chain, have decided the market will bear the increase,” said Kammen….
Kammen says the price of oil has in no way peaked, and there’s no end in sight.
“People who are buying raw petroleum, raw crude on the market right now see increasing demand in the future, and a US government that’s doing nothing to diversify our supply in a significant way, so the forecast is up and up and up,” said Kammen….
4. “Auction off the
right to pollute” – Commentary by ROBERT
REICH (Marketplace [NPR],
All three presidential candidates are in support of cap-and-trade, but a closer look shows views differ on how polluter permits should be allocated. Commentator Robert Reich is voting for a carbon auction.
ROBERT REICH: With McCain now on board for a “cap-and-trade”
system, it’s a certainty that we’ll have a president next year who
wants to address global warming by imposing an overall cap on
But look more closely and you see a big difference between McCain and the Democratic candidates on how the permits are allocated. McCain’s proposal would give the lion’s share to companies that are now the biggest polluters….
By contrast, Senators Obama and Clinton have both proposed allocating permits through an auction. Under this system, every company—large or small—would have to buy rights to pollute. As a result, the biggest polluters would have to pay the most—thereby providing them with the greatest incentive to cut emissions right from the start….
Jagow: Robert Reich teaches public policy at the
5. “A step forward in climate
change talks” (Marketplace [NPR],
Left to right, the heads
of the Russian, Japanese, British and Canadian
delegations at the G8 environment ministers meeting in
TESS VIGELAND: Today, environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by mid-century….. But, as it often goes with these things, there’s a sticking point….
SAM EATON: The thinking goes like this: It’s not so hard for a politician to agree on huge reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 simply because it’s so far away. None of the politicians throwing their weight behind the agreement will still be around when it goes into effect. It’s the shorter-term goals—the ones that serve as a roadmap for getting there—that threaten to stall the talks.
Dan Kammen is a climate policy expert at UC Berkeley.
DAN KAMMEN: The fear of a 2020 target is you have to act now. You would have to not only get the clean-energy technologies up and running, but relatively soon there’s going to have to be a price for carbon and that’s really where the rubber hits the road. That’s where this is going to have a financial cost.
Last year, the U.N.
launched negotiations for a new international climate change treaty to replace
the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. This weekend’s meeting was aimed at smoothing the way for more decisive action
at July’s G8 summit in
Berkeley’s Dan Kammen says that’s important because its one of the fastest ways to reduce emissions.
KAMMEN: It takes only a matter of months to a year to install a wind farm or solar thermal plants whereas it takes many years, sometimes a decade, to get some of the biggest industrial facilities installed.
And Kammen says there’s an added bonus for the countries donating the funds: it’s their clean-tech firms that are likely to get the business….
6. “Bay area passes
carbon tax. First-ever fees cover nine counties” (Los Angeles Times,
From the Associated Press
The modest fee [4.4 cents per ton of carbon dioxide they emit] probably won’t be enough to force companies to reduce their emissions, but backers say it sets an important precedent in combating climate change and could serve as a model for regional air districts nationwide.
“It doesn’t solve global warming, but it gets us
thinking in the right terms,” said Daniel
Kammen, a renewable energy expert at the
[This story also
appeared in dozens of sources around the world, including the <a href=“http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/21/america/NA-GEN-US-Global-Warming-Fees.php“>International
Herald Tribune</a>, <a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/20/financial/f182118D21.DTL&type=printable“>San
Francisco Chronicle</a>, <a href=“http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_9330626“>San
Jose Mercury News</a>, and <a href=“http://www.contracostatimes.com/bayandstate/ci_9326137“>Contra
Costa Times</a>]
7. “Mom forced to live
in car with dogs” (CNN.com,
By Thelma Gutierrez and Wayne Drash, CNN
CNN’s Gregg Canes and Traci Tamura contributed to this report.
Californian Barbara Harvey says she is forced to sleep in her car with her dogs after losing her job earlier this year.
John Quigley, an
economics professor at the University of California-Berkeley, said the
“Part of the reason why it’s so painful in
8. “It’s always the economy, stupid. Recessions
ruined the re-election bids of Carter and Bush. Could a weak economy hurt John
McCain’s chance of keeping the White
House in GOP hands?” (CNN Money,
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Rising unemployment in key electoral battleground states are one factor working against Republican John McCain.
NEW
YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Some of the worst economic conditions in the country are
where John McCain can least afford them—in electoral battleground states
crucial to Republicans’ chances of
hanging onto the White House.
… The outcome may very well hinge on which candidate convinces voters that they have the best plan to get the economy back on track….
“What [Obama] has to work on is an economic message that resonates,” said Henry Brady, a political science professor at the University of California-Berkeley….
Still, the weakening economies in key states are not the only headwinds that McCain will have to face….
“Gasoline at $4 a gallon is just horrific as a reminder everyday when people have to get gas. The housing problem is not going away any time soon. And then you have the job losses,” said Brady….
“Even if there is some technical evidence of the economy rebounding, it’s not going to be very helpful to John McCain or very evident to the average person,” said Brady….
9. “Clinton Quiet About Own Radical
Ties - Faulting of Obama Called Hypocritical” (Washington Post,
By James V.
…In her campaign for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination,
But her decision to target Obama’s radical connections has spurred criticism from some former protest movement leaders who say she has opened her own associations to scrutiny….
Robert Reich, who
went to
Clinton’s
associations [with a student protest leader] date to her years as a student
leader at
“I gave a talk at
10. “Dan Kammen:
Clean energy and
--Daniel M. Kammen
Retooling America for a low-carbon and environmentally responsible future has been long in coming and will take decades to achieve, but clean energy industries have already become a major economic force in Europe and are poised to do the same here.
The explosion of financial and political interest in energy is overdue. As a start, Congress and the next president will have to address that the federal government has underinvested in energy research for decades. As a nation, we invest less in energy R&D and deployment than do a few large biotechnology firms. This is unacceptable….
At
the same time, no nation is better positioned to adopt a low-carbon energy diet
than we are. The
The central challenge of the 21st century will be to replace the vast fossil-fuel infrastructure with a new economy based on low-carbon technologies. The issue on the table is the need to finance clean energy research programs and to build markets where low-carbon technologies are rewarded. In other words, we must begin to price pollution….
Daniel M. Kammen is a professor in the Energy and Resources Group and in the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.
11. “Campaign 2008 - 101 DAYS - Before the dust can settle on
the Democratic National Convention in - August, the party has to settle on a
candidate and settle its differences” (Denver Post,
By Chuck Plunkett
Soon, so soon, they will be here. Thousands of delegates, hundreds of campaign staffers, bunches of bloggers, and all of them potentially divided.
After more than a year and a half on the campaign trail, fueled by an unprecedented total half-billion dollars, worn by 16-hour-plus days on buses and planes to stadiums and churches and greasy spoons in every corner of the United States, teams Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama finally will come to town….
And if Democrats don’t use that time to figure out how to heal the wounds and bring the teams together for the teary-eyed, hearts-aflutter historic coronation that is supposed to be the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the audience will notice….
Theories on how to bring about the unity focus on what takes onstage at the Pepsi Center, the site of the convention hall, and outside at the many private parties and events.
“What do you do with Bill Clinton?” said Henry Brady, a political scientist at the
“One of the arguments you could make is (the party) should
sell how good the ‘90s were,” Brady said, speaking of the strong
economy that bubbled up during the
12. “BRIC could be a force for sustainability” (Marketplace
[NPR],
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (L) and Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference after talks in
Renita Jablonski: Meanwhile, foreign ministers from the
so-called BRIC nations … are in
Sam Eaton: The meetings represent the first time
Some political analysts see this as a threat, but
DAN KAMMEN: They
have a huge advantage in terms of Brazil’s
biofuels and
Stocks in the BRIC nations have risen 70 percent over the past two years. Kammen says if the countries were to coordinate their investments in clean energy, they could become not just global economic leaders, but climate leaders as well….
13. “Early education is key, speaker
says. Pre-K school advocate says not just poor kids need boost to success”
(Beacon Journal,
By John Higgins
If
But pre-K education must be of a high quality to achieve the
returns on investment, says David Kirp,
a
Kirp, the author of The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics, has criticized the quality of Florida’s pre-K program, in terms of its curriculum, teacher training and oversight.
‘‘In Florida, you get a bewildering variety in terms of quality and there’s nobody regulating what that quality is,’’ Kirp said at a public forum last September hosted by Pre-K Now and The Pew Charitable Trusts….
14. “Most don’t
know personal data can be sold” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer
Many Californians don’t understand how businesses are using and selling their personal information, according to a report released today by the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley.
The survey found that people tend to assume their information is protected from being sold when it’s not.
“Businesses are allowed to sell information unless consumers object,” said Chris Hoofnagle, the clinic’s associate director and a co-author of the report. “There’s a (significant) gap between people’s understanding of the rules and actual marketplace practices.”
With help from the university’s Survey Research Center [directed by Henry Brady], the clinic asked approximately 1,000 people about nine common transactions—ordering a pizza, for instance, or donating to charity—and what they thought happened to their personal information as a result. Responses were weighted to reflect a representative sample of Californians.
In only two categories—subscribing to newspapers or magazines and entering a sweepstakes—did more than 50 percent of respondents understand that when they do these things, they’re handing over their information to be sold.
Otherwise, many got it wrong. A majority of people didn’t realize that when they order a pizza, donate to charities, register a product for a warranty, collect a product rebate, give their phone numbers to store clerks or order something from a catalog, they’re allowing their information to be sold and shared among companies.
Pizza delivery information also is used by private investigators and governments to track people, the report points out….
[Source: “What Californians Understand About Privacy Offline “ - Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic, UC Berkeley.]
15. “Obama Green Talk Is Gold to
By Matt Richtel
Senator Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, spoke on Wednesday at a workplace town hall meeting at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich. (Photo: Jeff Haynes/Reuters)
Senator Barack Obama Wednesday proposed that the federal government spend $150 billion over 10 years to promote alternative energy and create several million jobs….
Just what that might mean is not entirely clear (more on that
below). But even in the abstract, it was met with enthusiasm by some
“This is great news,” said Josh Green, an alternative energy investor at Mohr Davidow Ventures, a venture firm. “It would be an incredibly helpful thing for clean-tech.”
Then, after a bit of thought, he slightly tempered his enthusiasm. “I don’t want to be rosy about this,” he said. “It won’t be determinative about whether clean-tech will work or not.”
But it would provide the right kind of momentum, argued Daniel Kammen, an adviser to Mr. Obama
on energy issues and the director of the
Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the
The Obama plan “is the real thing,” Dr. Kammen wrote in an e-mail message. “I am very encouraged by it.”
Dr. Kammen, an authority on alternative energy policy and investment issues, says what he finds compelling about the plan is that it mixes research and development spending with an extension of tax credits that have helped spur alternative energy investments. He said the plan was encouraging in that it incorporated the latest tools from continuing state, university and business efforts.
Dr. Kammen also noted that Mr. Obama’s proposed level of investment was roughly three times that of a rival plan from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is battling Mr. Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination….
Typically, the government doesn’t act as a direct venture capital investor—a labor-intensive role that involves picking which companies to invest in and then nurturing their development.
But the government can play a significant role in seeding
research at places like the
16. “Mortgage help falls short” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR],
The Congressional Budget Office predicts the housing bill Congress is drafting will help only a small portion of homeowners heading to mortgage default. Commentator Robert Reich explains why Congress must broaden that bill.
ROBERT REICH: The housing bill working its way through Congress is better than nothing, but not much. Already one in 12 American families with mortgages owes more than their house is worth. And home values continue to slide. At this rate, by next year nearly one in four families with mortgages will be under water....
It’s a giant problem not just for people losing their homes but also for creditors who won’t be collecting on home loans, neighborhoods becoming ever more blighted by empty houses that reduce other property values, towns and cities whose property-tax revenues are plummeting, and the economy as a whole....
Message from earth to
Robert Reich teaches public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. His latest book is called “Supercapitalism.”
17. “Early Start: the case for preschool education” (ABC TV
News, Worlds News
…ABC’s Gigi Stone
reports: These four year olds in
Gigi [in classroom]: How quickly can you tell who’s had pre-K and who hasn’t?
Janet [the pre-school teacher]: ... You can tell the first day the kids who’ve had pre-K because they are so ready for learning…. They’ve had experience with letters. The kids who have not had those experiences don’t know how to begin to write.
Gigi: And long-term studies show kids who go to pre-school have an advantage that lasts their whole lives.
David Kirp, author of The Sandbox Investment: They graduate from high school. They go to college. They stay off welfare, they stay out of prison. They earn about 25% more than kids who didn’t have that experience. And that’s amazing…. For each dollar we invest in these programs we get $10 back....
18. “Lean, mean - and green” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Lynette Evans
The recession is running into the green movement—and that is not a bad thing. Habits we weren’t able to break simply on the grounds that our continuous consumption is bad for the planet may now fall victim to the interests of the pocketbook….
As we’ve noted
before, the greenest families are those living in single rooms in
As Robert Reich notes in “Super Capitalism,” we are all responsible for the state of the economy because in our capacities as consumers and investors (yes, you, even if your only investment is in your teacher’s retirement account and your shopping is at bargain stores), we are complicit in the economic games. We’ve done pretty well in the past three decades as consumers and investors, Reich says. As citizens, not so much so. The community good, which accompanied the regulated postwar economy, Reich notes, has languished as we’ve gained consumer products and bought into the stock market….
19. “SNARK ATTACK” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
ECONOMISTS V. GAS TAX
Both Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton are proposing a
holiday for the gas tax—a terrible idea. But
- Mark Trahant
20. “Wal-Mart improving its image, an expert finds—Former executive Chuck Denny’s analysis shows the retailer is emerging as one of the most progressive U.S. companies” (Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) - May 10, 2008); story citing ROBERT REICH.
By Neal St. Anthony; Staff Writer
Wal-Mart may be evolving into a model corporate citizen, says a retired dean of the Twin Cities business community….
Labor unions have decried its anti-union stance and low wages, sales of hundreds of billions annually in cheap, imported goods. Small-town merchants have claimed the huge retailer put them at jeopardy, if not out of business.
The national average wage for retail workers in 2006 was $11.51 and [Chuck] Denny found that Wal-Mart paid slightly below average, partly due to the preponderance of stores in the lower-paying South. Yet Denny, in his review of independent research, found that the average Wal-Mart shopping family saved about $2,300 annually in its low-price, no-frills stores.
Liberal economist
Robert Reich, a
21. “Author: Fund preschools - Standards needed for early
education, he says” (Ann Arbor News,
By David Jesse, The
For years, the growing universal preschool movement has been
driven at the state and local level, leading to a wide variety in standards, author David Kirp said Thursday in
He hopes that will change some day and that the federal government will decide to supply an infusion of money and tie it to high standards for teachers….
Kirp was the keynote speaker at the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation’s International Conference Thursday afternoon. He is the author of “The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics” and is an advocate for universal preschool….
Kirp said the growth in universal preschool is due largely to increases in research tied to economics and also increased advocacy.
The most famous preschool research project was conducted by High/Scope at Perry Preschool. It started in 1962 and has lasted for more than 40 years. It showed that a high quality early childhood program has a dramatic impact on the lives of poor children, improving their educational success, increasing their adult earnings, reducing their criminal activity and returning nearly $13 to taxpayers for every dollar invested into the program.
“The research all came together,” he said. “All the research is showing the benefits for kids from well-done programs.”
Having a well-done program means having a planned curriculum and teachers who know what they are doing, rather than preschool teachers who are just child care workers, he said.
22. “City Council in Bay Area Declares Bankruptcy” (New York
Times,
By Jesse McKinley
VALLEJO, Calif. — In a potentially ominous harbinger for some cities in California and elsewhere, the Vallejo City Council voted to declare bankruptcy Tuesday night in the face of dwindling tax revenues, the housing market meltdown and a faltering economy….
What worries some experts is that some of the problems here are all too common, a steep decrease in property and sales taxes and transfer fees as a result of weakness in the housing market.
“At one point, bankruptcy seemed beyond the pale, but it’s something that one hears about a lot
more now,” said John Quigley, a
professor of economics at
A bayside community of 117,000 25 miles northeast of
“With
23. “The MicroFueler - A Washing Machine That Makes DIY
Ethanol” (Wired,
By Chuck Squatriglia
People
were making ethanol at home long before there were cars. They called it
moonshine. With gas prices going through the roof and everyone worried about
global warming, a
E-Fuel Corporation has unveiled its EFuel 100 MicroFueler, a device about the size of a stacking washer-dryer that uses sugar, yeast and water to make 100 percent ethanol at the push of a button.
“You just open it like a washing machine and dump in your sugar, close the door and push one button,” company founder Tom Quinn told us. “A few days later, you’ve got ethanol.”…
“It’s so simple, anyone can make their own fuel,” Quinn says. Depending upon the cost of electricity and water, he says, the MicroFueler can produce ethanol for less than $1 a gallon. Quinn likens the MicroFueler to the personal computer and says it will cause the same sort of “paradigm shift.”…
Maybe. Maybe not. Making ethanol at home is not as easy as Quinn might have you believe, says Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC-Berkeley. Making a lot of ethanol has generally required a lot of equipment, he told the New York Times, and quality control can be uneven.
“There’s a lot of hurdles you have to overcome. It’s entirely possible that they’ve done it, but skepticism is a virtue,” Kammen says….
24. “
By Alan Wang
Another consequence of the mortgage crisis arises in
“They need to take and refinance the loans at fixed interest rate so we can afford to stay in our homes,” said Fannie Brown.
Brown has lived in this south
The City of
“Between the time a property foreclosed and the time it is sold, the loss in value is as much as 40 percent,” says Quigley....
25. “Apply Subprime Lessons To
Credit Cards” – Commentary by ROBERT
REICH (Marketplace, American Public Media [NPR],
ROBERT REICH: Americans owe billions on their credit cards, and the price tag is mounting daily as interest charges accumulate, even though most Americans are pulling in their belts and economizing.
You see, for years credit card companies have been sending us greater and greater sounding offers, but they’ve been hiding how much interest they’ll be charging and how they calculate the outstanding balance….
Sound familiar? It’s just like what mortgage lenders were doing before the bust, but the housing bust has been something of a wakeup call, and now both Congress and the Fed are considering banning these practices.
Yet the American Bankers Association is vowing to block these reforms….
It’s another reminder of how our democracy has drifted into the hands of non-democratic agencies like the Fed, because the political branches are answerable to money interests rather than to the public interest.
RYSSDAL: Robert Reich
teaches public policy at the
26. “So, who says the worst is over?” (Marketplace, American
Public Media [NPR],
...Bob
Moon: So, who says the worst is over? Certainly not the
underwriter of the biggest share of mortgages in
That has investors bracing for more big losses when Fannie Mae’s federally-sponsored cousin Freddie Mac reports its results later in the week. Both of the big firms have been key in keeping the mortgage market alive during the ongoing credit problems. All of which is raising all kinds of concerns about what will happen if things get even worse....
...John Quigley is an
economist at the
JOHN QUIGLEY: The specific Fannie Mae loss is small potatoes in the general course of things in the economy, but it indicates the enormous instability in the housing market.
So is today’s news no big deal?
QUIGLEY: It’s more worrisome because there’s potentially more federal resources on the hook, but it’s not a calamity in and of itself....
27. “MBA courses: An ethical dilemma for students. Business
schools have embraced corporate social responsibility. But can it last in the
real world?” (The Independent [
By Peter Brown
Several years ago, a combination of the Enron scandal and global warming shook up the business environment. Business schools started to introduce modules onto their MBA courses that looked beyond the profit motive – or, at least, recognized fresh dangers to the bottom line. Ethics began to be taken seriously.
David Vogel, of the
The London-based Association of MBAs (AMBA) now insists that accredited MBA programmes address social and ethical issues, but does not specify how. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) modules come under a range of different names. Some are core courses, though most remain electives. Students, therefore, must decide what approach they feel comfortable with. How strongly does your chosen school feel about ethics?...
28. “New Breed of Business Gurus Rises.
Psychologists, CEOs Climb in Influence, Draw Hits, Big Fees” (Wall Street
Journal, Page B1,
By Erin White
The guru game is changing.
Psychologists, journalists and celebrity chief executives
crowd the top of a ranking of influential business thinkers compiled for The
Wall Street Journal. The results, based on Google
hits, media mentions and academic citations, ranked author and consultant
Dr. Hamel rose to the top spot from No. 7 in the 2003 ranking. He’s best-known for writing about corporate strategy….
Another hot topic is globalization, as managers seek insights into a changing, more competitive world. [Thomas] Friedman is the prime example, at No. 2. Also influential are Robert Reich, at No. 6, the former Clinton labor secretary who has written about global capitalism and America’s place in the world, and No. 16, Geert Hofstede, who has studied cultural differences in the workplace….
Top 20. The most influential business thinkers, according to a Wall Street Journal ranking:
|
Name |
Distinction |
|
1. Gary Hamel |
Consultant |
|
2. Thomas Friedman |
New York Times |
|
3. Bill Gates |
Microsoft chairman |
|
4. Malcolm Gladwell |
Author, ‘Blink’ |
|
5. Howard Gardneer |
Harvard professor |
|
6. Philip Kotler |
Northwestern professor |
|
6.
Robert B. Reich |
Ex-labor
secretary |
29. “This Week on Sierra Club Radio: Robert Reich” (Sierra Club Radio,
* Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and author of Supercapitalism, talks about the emerging green economy ….
30. “Scientists accuse Tories of ‘despicable’
interference. Ideological opposition to a
-- André Picard
The federal government committed a “serious breach of international scientific standards” in its handling of Vancouver’s safe injection site, according to a new study.
An article published in the International Journal of Drug Policy charges that the Conservative government interfered in the work of independent scientific bodies, attempted to muzzle scientists and deliberately misrepresented research findings because it is ideologically opposed to harm-reduction programs….
In 2003, the Liberal federal government approved North America’s first safe injection facility [called Insite], allowing public health officials to provide sterile needles and emergency medical care to intravenous drug users….
Since then, Dr. Evan Wood said, there have been 22 peer-reviewed papers published on the program and they have all shown a positive benefit to users, such as reduced rates of transmission of HIV-AIDS and greater use of rehabilitation services.
An independent scientific review led Health
But federal Health Minister Tony Clement intervened, saying there were too many unanswered questions and placed a moratorium on this type of research. The journal article says that was done at the behest of police organizations and based on political concerns, not sound public health policy.
In a commentary also published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, Robert MacCoun of the
He said that the evidence demonstrates that a “well-executed piece of policy research on a promising innovation was discontinued for unstated but blatant political reasons.”
Dr. MacCoun said that Mr. Clement’s critique of Insite—“Do safe injection sites contribute to lowering drug use and fighting addiction?”—misses the point of harm reduction.
He said the project is designed to minimize the harm IV drugs users do to themselves and others, something a law-and-order approach cannot achieve.
May 4 Robert Reich was guest on “Real Time with Bill Maher”.
May 4 Robert Reich was featured on “CNN Late Edition”, hosted by Wolf Blitzer.
May 6-7 John Quigley presented talks on “How
Did the Subprime Problem Become Everyone’s
Problem?” in the Discover Cal Lecture Series, Lafayette and
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